Arsenal's Mikel Arteta aims to make a ''big statement'' by beating Manchester City - and the fixture list

Gunner be tired: Arteta and Arsenal got back from Naples at 4am Thursday (Image: Paul Gilham)

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Mikel Arteta insists his Arsenal side can make a “big statement” at Manchester City on Saturday - even after their nightmare preparation for the massive fixture.

Arteta, who also branded his sending off against Napoli on Wednesday a “joke”, is angry over a gruelling schedule which threatens to derail the Gunners' title charge.

The squad, who only got home from Italy at 4am Thursday, had a warm-down session later in the day and will travel to Manchester on Friday for the Saturday lunchtime showdown.

In contrast, City get an extra 24 hours recovery time having played on Tuesday away to Bayern Munich.

Additionally, Blues stars such as Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany, Alvaro Negredo and Pablo Zabaleta were rested against Bayern as both clubs had already qualified for the Champions League's last 16.

Arteta, Arsenal’s stand-in skipper, said: “We know it can be a big statement if we get a good result at Manchester City. That’s what we want. Recover and think about the next game.

“The mood is fine, the recovery time is very tight. I don’t understand why we play Sunday afternoon, Wednesday evening, get back at 4am and then play again on Saturday morning in Manchester.

“There’s nothing we can do - just recover well. It’s a big game and we want to win it. It will just be about recovery. It’s not ideal. We will have a warm-down and try to get our legs back for Friday.

“We travel on Friday and will be as well prepared as we can. City will be ready for us because they rested seven or eight players in Munich.

“I think we have different options to play, you could see that in Naples - we changed the team a bit again. We have to be ready, no excuses. We want to win at Manchester City and we have to be prepared.”

While Arteta insisted that Arsenal won’t be making excuses, the fixture list has clearly infuriated them. Wenger last week even called for an ethics committee to be set up to rule on TV scheduling.

Arsenal are paying a heavy price for their early success this season as their 12:45pm clash at City has become a must-watch game for broadcasters BT Sport and they go on their back of a bad night in Naples .

It was particularly bad for Arteta as he was sent off for two yellow cards and will miss the first leg of Arsenal’s last-16 tie.

“It was a joke. A joke,” said the Spaniard. “[I made] two fouls in the game and two yellow cards - so I’m very disappointed because obviously you miss the next game and you don’t want to miss any games and put your team in a difficult position.

“I think it was harsh and very unfair. They made 18 or 20 fouls in the first half, I make two in the whole game. It's not fair.”

They can only get one of five clubs in Monday’s draw because they cannot be drawn with someone they have already played in the group phase or a team from their own country, so will face one of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, European Cup holders Bayern and Atletico Madrid.

But Arteta insists that Arsenal would have to play some of the big guns if they wanted to have any ambition of winning the competition.

He added: “Before the group started, if they said we would go through as runner-up we would have been happy with that. But in the position we were in we wanted to finish first because we know we will face really difficult opposition in the next round so we are disappointed, we are disappointed to lose the Napoli game because it is never good to lose a game. But at least we are through.

“Yes, we are going to get one of the top teams but I’m sure they are not going to be happy to play against us either. It’s going to be tough, it doesn’t matter who we are playing against of this teams. But they will be thinking the same thing.

“We can compete with any team in Europe on our day, but obviously we are making it tougher on ourselves. if had fished first it would have been a different story. but we will take it on the chin.”